The Hospitall of Incurable
Fooles
by
William E. Miller
In his article on Thomas Nashe in the Dictionary of National
Biography, Sir Sidney lee wrote that Nashe "has been doubtfully
credited with a translation from the Italian of Garzoni's 'Hospitall of
Incurable Fooles', a satiric essay published by Edward Blount in 1600. But
Blount seems to claim the work for himself." Discussing the identity of the
translator in his introduction to The Works of Thomas Nashe,
R. B. McKerrow remarked that he did "not understand the statement in the
D.N.B. article on Nashe, that 'Blount seems to claim the
work
for himself'."[1]
The title of the book in full is The hospitall of incurable
fooles: erected in English, as neer the first Italian modell and
platforme, as the vnskilfull hand of an ignorant Architect could
deuise. I pazzi, é li prudenti, fanno giustissima
bilancia. Printed by Edm. Bollifant, for Edward
Blount.
1600. It was entered in the Stationers' Register on March 8,
1599/1600.[2]
McKerrow included in his remarks a collation of the book, broken
into details for the preliminaries. He found the order of the book to be
A4 a2 B-X4 (X4 blank).
The preliminaries he listed as follows:
"A2-2v 'To the good old Gentlewoman, and her special
Benefactresse,
Madam Fortune, Dame Folly (Matron of the Hospitall) makes curtesie, and
speakes as followeth.' A3-4v 'Prologue of the Author to
the beholders.'
(From the Italian.) a1-2v 'Not to the wise Reader.' (Signed
'II
pazzissimo'.)"
This analysis reveals the source of McKerrow's failure to comprehend
Lee's remark: one of the preliminaries had escaped his notice. In three
copies of the work which I have examined there is a letter, not mentioned
by McKerrow, entitled "To my most neere and Capriccious
Neighbor."[3] The letter is printed on
both sides of an inserted single leaf, which is unsigned. Though the leaf is
to be found in at least two (probably three) positions relative to the other
preliminaries, it must be genuine.[4]
The best
evidence for the fact (aside from the inclusion of the leaf in several copies
of the work) is the decorative initial "I", which appears also in the
dedication to Madam Fortune on sig. A2.
In view of the fact that the letter seems important in any discussion
of Nashe's part in the translation of the piece, and because it is brief, it will
perhaps not be amiss to present it complete.
TO MY MOST NEERE and Capriccious Neighbor, ycleped
Iohn Hodgson, alias Iohn Hatter, or (as some
will)
Iohn of Paules Churchyard, (Cum multis alijs quae nunc imprimere
longum est:) Edward Blount; wisheth prosperous successe in
his
Monomachie, with the French and Spaniard.
Iohn of all Iohns, I am bould heere to bring you into a guest-house
or Hospitall, and to leaue you there; not as a Patient, but as a Patron or
Treasurer: I could wish, that vpon this sudden calling to such an office, you
would not (like one swolne with the fatnesse of your place) grow bigger or
prouder, nor (indeede) more couetous then you are: but like a man within
compasse, whose bare (or rather thread-bare) content is his kingdome, tread
all Ambition vnder your Ancient shooe soales, now the sixteenth time
corrected, Et ab omnibus mendis purgatas. Stay now; for
your
charge: you shall sweare to the vttermost of your endeuours, without fraude
or imposture to releeue and cherish all such creatures as are by the hand of
Fortune committed to your custodie, as also to elect and choose officers of
good reputation and sincere practise to supply inferiour places vnder you
as: a Porter, who shall refuse none that are willing to enter; a surgeon, that
will protract the cure long
ynough vpon them, and that if any desperate Censurer shal stab either at
you or me, for vndertaking, or assigning this office or place, you presently
take him into the darke ward, and there let him be lookt to, and kept close
as a concealment, till some bodie beg him; all this you shall faithfully
protest to accomplish: So helpe you a fat Capon, and the Contents of this
Booke.
It appears that scholars have been doubtful of the identity of John of
Paul's Churchyard. As McKerrow said, ". . . it seems not to be certainly
known what he or it was."[5] It can
now be said with considerable confidence that John of Paul's Churchyard
was John Hodgson, a hatter and haberdasher,[6] who evidently was gifted with a
well
marked personality. A John Hodgson, probably identical with Blount's
neighbor, is on the tax list for St. Faith's Parish, Ward of Farringdon
Within, dated 1 October 41 Elizabeth [1599].[7] Hodgson was assessed at three
pounds and
taxed eight
shillings, a substantial amount. The church of this parish was St. Faith's
Under St. Paul's, and it is likely that John Hodgson was a member of it,
for it "serued for the Stacioners and others dwelling in Paules Churchyard,
Pater noster row, and the places neare adioyning."
[8] At about the same time Edward
Blount
had his shop in St. Paul's Churchyard, "Over against the Great North
Door" (Arber, V, 198).
The man honored by this burlesque dedication was mentioned in the
works of at least two authors better known than Blount. In the epistle "To
the Reader" prefixed to Thomas Middleton's Father Hubburd's
Tales: or, the Ant and the Nightingale (1604), the
writer
testifies: ". . . by John of Paul's-churchyard, I swear, and that oath will be
taken at any haberdasher's, I never wished this book better fortune than to
fall into the hands of a true-spelling printer, and an honest-minded
bookseller . . . ." Again the author says: "Here I began to rail, like Thomas
Nash against Gabriel Harvey, if you call that railing; yet I think it was but
the running a tilt of wits in booksellers' shops on both sides of John of
Paul's churchyard; and I wonder how John scaped unhorsing."[9]
Thomas Dekker paid his respects to the celebrity in The Gull's
Hornbook (1609). Instructing the gallant how to behave himself in
Paul's Walks, he wrote: ". . . Powles may be pround of him, Will
Clarke shall ring forth Encomiums in his honour, Iohn
in
Powles Church-yard, shall fit his head for an excellent
blocke,
whilest all the Innes of Court reioyce to behold his most hansome
calfe."[10]
The source of the attribution of The Hospitall to
Thomas
Nashe seems to be no better than a mysterious memorandum in a copy of
the work: "Tho. Nashe had some hand in this translation and it was the last
he did as I heare P. W."[11] The style
of the original parts (all of the preliminaries except "Prologue of the Author
to the beholders") and that of the translated portions, alike lead to
confirmation of McKerrow's conclusion that ". . . there is . . . not the
slightest trace of evidence, external or internal, to connect Nashe's name
with the book" (Nashe, V, 141). There is nothing that I can find in the
method of expression that has more than a superficial resemblance to
Nashe's helter-skelter vigor and allusiveness. Finally, there seem to be
strong grounds for doubt that Nashe knew enough Italian to translate a book
from that language into English. McKerrow remarked that he could not help
thinking "that if Nashe had had any
acquaintance with languages he would have been careful to apprise us of the
fact" (Nashe, V, 133).
The translator of the book remains unknown. It was probably not
Nashe. It may have been Blount, but nothing in the dedicatory letter to John
Hodgson reveals the writer of it as the translator of the book. The only
evidence known to me that can be used to support Blount's claim is that he
presumably knew Italian and translated from that language into English,
since he is credited with the translation into English of the Arte
Aulica of Lorenzo Ducci (English title: Ars Aulica, or the
Courtier's Arte, 1607), and that as its publisher he might have found
it convenient and economical to translate The Hospitall of Incurable
Fooles himself.
Notes